As Ricky Hatton prepares for his biggest night for more than two years, the largest prize of all – in financial terms – remains elusive. Hatton faces José Luis Castillo here on Saturday and victory would again raise hopes that he could face Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Hatton has been in town since last week, renting a house near the Strip after complaining that the air conditioning in his suite at Caesars Palace before his bout against Juan Urango in January gave him a head cold. Across town, Mayweather lives in a grander mansion, officially – according to him – a former boxer after his points win over Oscar De La Hoya last month made him a five-weight world champion and the reigning WBC welterweight and light-middleweight champion.

Like most people, Hatton, who does not like the loud-mouthed Mayweather, believes that there is little chance that the American will stay retired. “I don’t think Mayweather will retire because he wants to be remembered as an all-time great,” Hatton said. “And as much as it was a massive win for him, it was still a 34-year-old De La Hoya, who has seen better days.

“But when I look at Mayweather, it’s hard to knock him because he is class, but he beat De La Hoya who is a little bit past it and ran out of gas in the second half of the fight, he beat Diego Corrales who was weight drained, Arturo Gatti and Zab Judah who had seen better days and Carlos Baldomir who had just had a couple of good wins.

“If he wants to be an all-time great, I still feel he’s got to do something a bit more.”

According to the Mayweather camp, Hatton was offered a bout with their boxer in November 2005, soon after the Mancunian had beaten Kostya Tszyu to win the IBF light-welterweight title.

“We offered Hatton the fight 18 months ago,” Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s adviser, said. “Ray [Hatton, Ricky’s father and business manager] said they wanted to wait and have two more fights first. That was the opportunity, it’s gone.”

Hatton, though, knows that he has to beat Castillo – who twice lost to Mayweather, although the first time controversially – and do it well to rekindle interest from Mayweather. What he feels he can bring the Mayweather story, though, is excitement.

“I haven’t seen Mayweather in one good fight yet,” Hatton said. “I’ve seen him in loads of fights where you think technically this man is class, but in years to come, when we look back, it’s fights like [Julio César] Chávez and the [Micky] Ward-Gatti fights we will watch. If you’re a fight historian and you look on that shelf where the great fights are, are you going to reach for a Floyd Mayweather video?

“I think Mayweather is a far better fighter than Arturo Gatti, but I think people will be watching Gatti’s fights long after they’ll be watching Floyd Mayweather’s. I just don’t think he will retire yet.”

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